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Online newsletter solution wanted

         

silverbytes

5:32 pm on Feb 14, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I saw some good email services where you pay monthly to send email. But I'd like to run a service like those on my hosting (just for my own newsletters). However don't know where to look.

Can someone reccommend a script, software or something I pay just once (if free better)?

kodaks

10:04 pm on Feb 14, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Three questions:

What coding preference do you have?

On average, how many subscribers do you think you'll have?

Any other features you would like?

silverbytes

11:34 pm on Feb 14, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Something remotely hosted I can easily set up with a normal ftp access. Actual hosting is apache.

Suscribers up to 20000. I saw many already runing like streamsend, aweber, and others. They are good, so something similar would be great. Just don't want to be paying monthly....

Desired features:
Broadcast, follow up, autoresponder, stats, the usual things...

sacrelage

4:12 am on Feb 15, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Ok, first of all. DONT SPEND YOUR MONEY.

There are many sites which give you free scripts. Let me tell you what I do on my site.

I pick up one script that does just subscription confirmations (sending verification mails etc)

The next script sends out the mailers.

All I do is just export the list from script 1 and import it to script 2.

The reason for this is because, I have noticed there isnt any script which gives you complete power.

However, WebInsta is one script that I really love.

Just go to hotscripts.com, onlyphp.com, needscripts.com and go to the PHP scripts section and click on the ""Mailing List Managers" Voila... you get a really professional set up with $0.00 spent.

Hope this helps.

Playful Melissa

3:37 pm on Feb 15, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Thanks this was perfect timing for me I'm looking to do the same thing.

silverbytes

5:13 pm on Feb 15, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I was looking hotscripts before you post and didn't find the right tool (perhaps because I was looking for 1 script to do all the tasks)

Many of these are paid, can you recommend some?
And does any of these offer stats to know what happened with emails sent?

sacrelage

5:25 pm on Feb 15, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Hi Silver,

I can tell you that HotScripts wont be that helpful as most of the scripts are charged.

Try out needscripts, onlyphp, onlyscripts

All these free scripts, WILL NOT do everything. So you basically have to break it up into 3 parts. This is what I do for my site. Perhaps you try it too.

Script 1: Allows me to put a custom designed subscription box. Sends out verification mails, and also provides a link to Un Sub.

Script 2: Allows me to import e-mail lists and send mail in HTML/Rich Text/Plain Text formats

Script 3: (Under Tracking section) Helps me find out the links that are clicked.

Most cases you will have to use 3 different scripts. However, there is a script which does all 3, but the interface is bad and it sends out mails only in HTML.

I would suggest that as long as you have a web log analyzer in place, you can do away with the tracking part (script 3)

P.S: You can get the tracking scripts as well in those sites.

Hope this helps.

elgumbo

5:31 pm on Feb 15, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Do a search for Dada mail. Not perfect but pretty close.

GarryBoyd

11:53 pm on Feb 15, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



You will have a lot of trouble trying to send email to 20,000 using any self hosted script on the market. Many bounces, timeouts and you will end up on blacklists. You may lose your hosting.

Best to go with one of the specialists. There are a few review sites that give deliverability stats for most of the top providers.

silverbytes

3:48 pm on Feb 16, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Thanks all of you! I'll search again.

About Dada: installed with stats feature U$100 for 1 year (not very close to free)

Garry: So you basically say pay for sending emails to a service.
What do they know that makes it work?
I mean why they will not end blacklisted...?

sacrelage

5:25 pm on Feb 16, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Silver,

Thats the whole point. If you want to send e-mails that get delivered to inbox, you have to shell out some money. Else, if you are a small business set up, then I believe those free scripts should do you good.

They have about 50% delivery rate which quite acceptable. Once your reciepients add your e-mail address to their address book, it should not be a problem.

What you can do also, is open up for newsletter advertising. Since it goes to a targeted audience, you can charge an amount that is more than the the usual cost for CPM campaigns as the target audience would be ready to click on those ads.

You should also set up about 2 or 3 such free mailing lists and create a couple of test mail accounts and see which ones give you a better delivery rate.

This way, you can use one mailing list to send out bulk mailers, and the better performing ones for personalized mails.

silverbytes

9:49 pm on Feb 16, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



you mean using those freebies I'll reach just 50%?
By the way I searched the whole day and most are paid, even the "free" ones are just demos limited to 100 contacts and so on...

I saw some interesting to manage suscriptions and unsusc.

What kind of tool should I look for for the sending process?

GarryBoyd

12:37 am on Feb 20, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



The paid services have bullet proof servers, top level contacts at the major ISP's in case of problems and a whole lot of other tech stuff in the background. A basic hosting account provider does not want to solve your bulk email problems, and will limit the amount of mail you can send. Many ISP take the default stance that if it smells like bulk mail, kill it.